Mary-Louise Hoffman
Lockheed Martin has moved into the assembly, test and launch operations phase of spacecraft the company is building for a NASA asteroid research mission.
NASA aims to launch the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer to collect samples from the Bennu asteroid, Lockheed said Tuesday.
“We’re installing the electronics in the next few weeks and shortly after we’ll power-on the spacecraft for the first time,” said Rich Kuhns, OSIRIS-REx program manager at Lockheed’s space systems business.
The assembly phase covers the integration of scientific instruments as well as avionics, power, telecommunication, mechanism, thermal, guidance, navigation and control systems into the spacecraft.
OSIRIS-REx could undergo environmental testing in the fall.
The OSIRIS-REx mission falls under the NASA’s New Frontiers Program and is managed by the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.
